US Court Grants Divorce Through Facebook

Introduction

In a recent past, the US Court granted a divorce for a couple through Facebook as a last resort. While passing the judgment, the honorable court had said that a woman could divorce her husband through Facebook if she failed to go along with him. This ruling had come after the husband of a New York woman was not physically traceable even after repeated serving of notices to him.

Landmark Judgement

The Judge of Manhattan Supreme Court Matthew Cooper had to pass this ruling in favor of the New York woman Ellanora Baidoo as her husband remained untraceable during the course of the trial at the family court. The court allowed the woman to send divorce summons to her missing husband Victor Sena Blood-Dzraku. The honorable court instructed her attorney to send him the petition on her behalf through the Facebook messaging system so that it could reach the man. The New York women' attorney Andrew Spinnell passed the news about this landmark judgment to the media. He told a media house in New York that his client wanted to become free. He further added that his client was very happy to hear the judgment as it had provided a mechanism for her to get the judgment of divorce from the legal authorities. The woman’s attorney would try to contact Blood-Dzraku once in a week for three weeks or until he acknowledges the receipt of the judgment. After the Facebook method of reaching the man fails, the woman would be granted the default divorce decree by the honorable court. The court had reasoned that the non-receipt of the court summons cannot become a premise for not giving divorce to a person who deserves to go out-of-wedlock.

Modern-day Judgement

In his judgment, the Justice Cooper opined that the social media platforms offer novel and non-traditional ways to communicate with people who cannot be contacted. This is because such people have no permanent house or permanent place of employment. He was referring to the case of the husband of the New York woman. He further added that summons could be served physically on those persons who present themselves readily before the court or whose whereabouts are known. If a person has no permanent place to live, the social media platforms help the authorities to pass on the softcopy of the judgment to him.  He also noted that courts in the USA had passed the judgments through emails in similar cases in the past.

Read More

Google Launches Free Roaming Facility Across the World

Introduction

A mobile operator rumored to associate with Google is planning to offer free international roaming facility to its customers. The search engine behemoth has stuck a deal with Hutchison Whampoa in the United Kingdom for this purpose.  It provides an opportunity for the Google users to call and text the near and dear ones at home when they are abroad. The company claims that it offers this service at the local call costs. This facility would also allow the users to avail the data connectivity of the local service provider while traveling abroad without paying the roaming charges.

International Roaming Facility

In order to give pan world international roaming facility, Google has entered into a deal with the owners of three reputed UK brands to offer largest coverage of mobile network. The agreeing parties are in for a wholesale access agreement that allows them to give free roaming facility to Google’s customers. This facility will allow the customers to send texts and user data, and make calls to their friends without incurring any other cost. In connection with this, the search engine behemoth has said that it is looking for a partner to set up its own mobile carrier. Google further added that its foray has limited ambitions to cater to a small section of customers. Apart from Hutchison, the company has leased the network capacity of Sprint and T-Mobile to set up the new service.

Different Enablers

The analysts in the field believe that Google would be able to offer its US mobile customers some of the benefits of the Three UK brands as a result of this new tie-up. The Hutchison tie-up would give the customers an ability to call and text home from overseas at local call cost. This facility would also allow the users to avail their monthly data allowance when they are traveling abroad. The company claims that this service would be supported in the countries like Australia, Ireland, the US, France, the Nordics, Italy, Hong Kong, etc. In the later stage, this service benefit would be extended to more countries for the benefit of its users. This is a good offer as often people cannot come out of the contract they had entered into with a local provider at home when they are in a foreign country.  Currently, they have to substitute the existing SIM card with local SIM of the foreign country they are visiting to avail the local service facilities there.

Read More